Ships Passing
by Srin
Summary: There's a man outside with an invisible spaceship, sir.' Jack encounters Benton, the Brigadier, and UNIT at large.


Notes: I love Benton and I love Jack, and just wanted an excuse to throw them together. Set sometime before The Empty Child for Jack, and after The Green Death for UNIT, no spoilers. Originally posted to a livejournal community in November of 2006.

* * *

"Sir?" 

"Yes Benton?"

"There's a man outside with an invisible spaceship, sir. Says he's having some engine trouble and hoped we could lend a hand."

"I can hardly concern myself with every civilian who breaks down in front of – Did you say invisible spaceship?"

"Yes, sir. Claims his instruments detected alien technology on the premises, thought we might be able to help."

* * *

"Alright Benton, where's this invisible spaceship of yours?" Sergeant Benton coughed awkwardly, but a man appeared from behind an otherwise unremarkable patch of depressed grass before he had to say anything else. 

"You must be the Brigadier," the stranger proclaimed in an American accent, taking Lethbridge-Stewart's hand and giving it a firm shake. "I'd show you my spaceship but she might attract some unwanted attention on the lawn here-" The tone of his voice and the caliber of his smile suggested to Benton that by "spaceship" he meant something else entirely, and he seemed almost disappointed when the Brigadier utterly failed to respond to the innuendo.

"I assure you, the local traffic is remarkably adept at failing to take notice of unusual phenomena," the Brigadier remarked stiffly. The stranger flashed a disarming grin and pushed a button on the device in his left hand. Behind him, the depressed grass vanished as an impressive spacecraft shimmered into view.

"Isn't she a beauty? I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and I'm sure you won't believe me if I say she's the latest in American engineering, so I won't waste your time." His tone became more serious. "I'm a Time Agent from your future. Our records indicate that UNIT is one of the forerunners of our own organization, and since I was forced to land in this period you seemed like the best place to turn for help."

"I see. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Captain, but we are not in the habit of passing out spare parts to any-"

"You misunderstand me, sir. I sure hope I'm not in need of spare parts. I was just looking to borrow some diagnostic equipment, my plasimeter's on the fritz y'see…"

* * *

Though Benton found the stranger to be quite charming and pleasant, the Brigadier remained skeptical. They had gone back inside to consult, leaving Harkness on the lawn with a guard. Benton glanced out the window to see the two men in rather closer proximity than he might have expected, but Harkness didn't seem to be making any attempt to disarm the guard or leave, so he opted to let them be. The guard looked quite happy, anyway. 

"I do wish the Doctor would put in an appearance, I really don't know what to make of this chap. A time agent? From our future? The craft's like nothing I've seen and he looks human enough, but I am quite reluctant to let him go nosing about UNIT headquarters," the Brigadier said.

"If all he wants is diagnostic equipment I don't see the harm, sir," Benton said. "Everything he'd be interested in is more or less in the Doctor's lab, we needn't let him anyplace else, and someone could keep an eye on him."

"Oh, very well. If anything goes wrong I'm sure the Doctor will turn up at an appropriate moment. You watch him, Benton."

"Me, sir?"

"Yes, you. With Miss Grant gone, you've spent more time in there than anyone else. I'm counting on you to make sure this Harkness doesn't get up to anything funny." Benton blinked, bewildered. Did he really spend that much time in the Doctor's lab? Perhaps he did.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

The stranger puttered around the Doctor's lab, periodically picking up some odd object and exclaiming in delighted technical terms that Benton didn't understand. Eventually he seemed to find what he was looking for, a diagnostic tool Benton had seen the Doctor use occasionally, and set it aside. As he was closing the drawer it had been in, he spotted something else and whipped it out. 

"Who _is_ this guy, John? This-" he waved the item, which looked to Benton like overly complicated kitchen appliance, "-is Earth tech, but it shouldn't be here, not yet." Benton shrugged.

"He's our scientific adviser, sir. I'm sure he just, ah, picked it up somewhere."

"Please, call me Jack," said the stranger, brandishing his smile again. "Just picked it up, huh? Does he usually go scavenging a thousand years in your future?" When Benton looked awkward and failed to answer, Harkness laughed and shook his head. "I would _love_ to meet this guy." He replaced the kitchen appliance thing reverently.

"I'm afraid he isn't here right now. He's always liked to travel, you see. He was working for us while his transportation was out of commission, but now it's up and running again and – well, we don't see him as often anymore."

"Well that's a shame. Speaking of transportation, though, let's see about getting mine going."

At Harkness's invitation and the Brigadier's assent, Benton followed the stranger into his ship. Jack offered him a drink, which he declined - "I'm on duty, sir," – and a seat, which he didn't. Harkness then slid under the console at the head of the ship and got down to business. He occasionally asked for one of the tools scattered around, which Benton passed on after receiving an adequate description, but mostly the stranger told stories. Most of them involved nudity or sex or both, and Benton was embarrassed at first but by the time Jack crawled back out Benton was roaring with laughter right along with him. Harkness flicked a few switches and a pleasant mechanical voice announced that he had successfully corrected the problem. Jack whooped with joy, then turned around and planted a kiss on Benton. At Benton's bewildered expression, Harkness sighed.

"Sorry. Forget what century I'm in, sometimes."

"It's alright, sir. You just surprised me," Benton said, somewhat surprised at himself. Harkness raised an eyebrow, at once inquisitive and suggestive.

"Pleasant surprise?"

"I suppose so, sir."

"There's more where that came from. And please. Call me Jack."

* * *

After Harkness had gone, Benton kept grinning like an idiot and the Brigadier kept glaring at him in disapproval. A few hours later, however, an alien menace turned up with the Doctor on its heels, and while Benton had had every intention of telling the Doctor all about Jack – well, _almost_ all about Jack – somehow in the chaos it simply never came up. 

End.

* * *

Closing note: In case it's unclear, this is after Jack left the Time Agency, he's just claiming otherwise because he figures he's more likely to get help that way. 


End file.
